Hulkenberg: just how good is he?

At Jerez on December 4 2007, Nico Hulkenberg had his first test in a Formula 1 car with Williams.

His two days of running in the Toyota-engined machine were enough to convince Williams to sign him as a junior driver, laying the foundations for his rise to grand prix racing.

Hulkenberg's engineer that day was Tom McCullough, who continued to work with the German throughout his testing duties with Williams. When Hulkenberg was promoted to a race seat for 2010, it was McCullough who saw him through his rookie season.

With Hulkenberg dropped by Williams to accommodate PDVSA's megabucks sponsorship and mandatory Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado, he headed to Force India for two years, first as reserve driver and then, in 2012, as race driver.

For this season, Sauber recruited Hulkenberg to its driving strength and McCullough as head of track engineering. This makes McCullough arguably better qualified than anyone else in F1 to comment on Hulkenberg's qualities.

Nico has always been very quick. How do you see his development as a driver?

I worked with him at Williams through all his testing while he was an F3 and GP2 driver and then as a race driver at Williams, so I engineered him right from the very first test at Jerez. The speed was always there.

Hulkenberg was paired with Barrichello for his rookie season at Williams in 2010 © XPB

It was interesting to work with him through his first year, with Rubens Barrichello as his team-mate. Nico never had a problem from a speed point of view but did learn a lot from Rubens about how to approach a race weekend, how to get the most out of a car and how to deliver consistently good qualifying performances.

When he went away to Force India, I watched him from the outside for a few seasons before working with him again. I could see all the speed is still there, but the approach to the weekend has developed, knowing you don't have to set the fastest lap in FP1, FP2, FP3 or even Q1.

He knows that with the car he has his lap in Q2 dictates the race weekend. He has matured a lot.

As a driver, his default would be to be harder on tyres than necessary, which is something he has had to work on, especially with the Pirellis to make sure he doesn't destroy the tyres. His natural driving style is to be a bit harder on the tyres, but he knows when to push and when not to.

Nico seems to have a clear idea of what he wants. It seems that, at times, that has created a bit of friction this year while the team and driver have got to know each other?

As a driver, you know what you want. He's worked for two British teams before but this team operates differently in some ways, which for both of us took some adjustment.

Drivers who drive year-on-year [with the same team] have it easier; to start off with there is the learning process with two new drivers at the start of the year. That always takes time to settle.

Nico knows what he wants and when he doesn't get it he tells you. I remember my first year engineering him - we fell out after one of the races but it was just about him saying what he wants and me saying what I thought was needed and in the end we realised we were both going for the same thing. You need to be strong with what you both want.

Sauber hasn't had a great 2013 so far © XPB

This has not been the easiest season and Sauber doesn't have the top-team resources to change the car just like that. It takes time, which must make that process harder?

A lot of it is about your expectation relative to what your results are. Of course, we had higher expectations in the first half of this season. Sometimes, the laptime differences were actually quite small to some of our competition so rather than being in Q3 or around there, two tenths spits you back three or four rows, let alone three or four places.

If you don't qualify in the right place, it's difficult to get a result. Being on the back foot a little bit with the car always makes everything a bit harder to start off with. We have definitely made progress with the car and his understanding of it.

It seems very surprising that he hasn't been picked up by a Ferrari, a Red Bull or a McLaren, a proven top team?

I agree. He has all the right characteristics and the ability - his junior career showed that. His first year in F1 was good.

In 2011, I worked with Rubens and, having gone from one side of the garage to the other, it's always interesting to compare and I had more respect for Nico after the second year once I understood and knew Rubens.

I was quite surprised he had a year out, his career momentum went backwards that year and is going forwards again now. Some people get there quicker but the good people always get to the top if they really are good.

Hulkenberg stunned F1 with his pole at Interlagos in 2010 © LAT

The pole position at Interlagos for Williams in 2010 was a high-point. What do you remember of that day?

The key was right at the start and having fuel for the whole session. I didn't want the car to be heavy and wanted Nico out there straight away. We weren't tyre-limited and knew the track would be at its best at the end and got out on track first or second.

Rubens called the change to slicks halfway through Q3, but on our side [of the garage] we weren't sure. Rubens came in, we did one extra lap pushing and went P6. At the time, I was happy with that. We could either stay out to the end and hope it comes good with the inters and then have the potential to improve but I knew that if everyone went slicks we could be P10.

I said to Nico that Rubens thinks it's good for dry tyres and others have changed, so he came in. Because he went out early, we had good track position and what was needed with those Bridgestone tyres in those conditions was to push hard on the out-lap.

I looked at my timing and saw the potential to do three timed laps but it was close. I said to him to push like hell to get these three laps in and I was seeing people running straight on at Turn 4 so was on the radio telling him to be careful there and at Turn 12.

Circumstantially, we ended up in that position with a clear track and three laps to push on so he went out. His second lap was good enough for pole [although he improved dramatically on his third lap]. A lot of the others got in each other's way. Right from that early decision to get out at the start of the session gave him track position to do the last lap on tyres with good temperature.

But sometimes teams can create the ideal circumstances and the driver doesn't nail it. Nico is a driver who does have the ability to deliver if you do your job right?

Yes. He had to deliver as well. One of the things Nico has always been good at has been his feel for the grip in those changeable conditions.

I worked with Mark Webber in the past and he was the same. When the grip level is changing a lot, being able to quickly get to where you need to be without going over is a skill and some drivers are better than others.

Hulkenberg got the upper hand over di Resta at Force India © XPB

He seems to have that confidence to go for it without making errors?

It was interesting watching Nico against Paul di Resta at Force India last year from the outside.

It was pretty close and then in the second half of the season Nico would generally qualify stronger. Again, this year, seeing how he works through qualifying, he seems to have much better consistency than when he was a rookie to deliver the lap when it's important.

Just looking at his laptime delta from run to run you can see him going with the track, pushing at the right time and delivering.

Does he have any weaknesses?

There are always areas to improve even for Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso. For Nico, his natural instinct in a race situation is to be hard on the rear tyres and that's an area he knows about and works hard at and needs the support from the pitwall. It's so important, the management of the tyres.

At the stage he is now in his career, if you were to put him next to an Alonso you would see maybe more than we see here. To answer the question properly you need the benchmark of a multiple world champion.

You would be confident that if he had a quick car and was on pole with a chance to win he would?

I think he has shown that in his career. I have confidence in him on the pitwall and don't think he's going to throw it away or do something stupid.